Toke Signals Stories of the Week

The FBI’s long-standing policy of no tolerance for marijuana use has forced the law enforcement agency to turn away the very best computer hackers — and now the agency is looking at letting in cannabis users.

“I have to hire a great workforce to compete with these cyber criminals, and some of those kids smoke weed on the way to the interview,” said FBI Director James Comey, reports Charles Levinson at The Wall Street Journal.

Congress has funded the FBI to add 2,000 new jobs this year, and many of those recruits will be assigned to the rapidly expanding cybercrimes unit. And that’s where the problem arises, according to Comey, who said a lot of the nation’s top computer programmers and hackers really like cannabis.

Comey said the FBI is currently “grappling” with how to change its marijuana policies. Less than 24 hours later, he predictably backtracked, engaging in spin control and claiming he never really meant to say anything nice about pot.

Some marijuana farmers may soon find themselves with some thirsty plants if the federal government decides to block the use of federal water for state-legal cannabis cultivation.

The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation is in charge of managing federal water resources, and “at the request of various water districts in the West,” the Bureau “is evaluating how the Controlled Substances Act applies in the context of Reclamation project water being used to facilitate marijuana-related activities,” according to spokesman Peter Soeth, report Matt Ferner and Mollie Reilley at The Huffington Post.

Local water districts in Colorado and Washington state contract with federal water projects — and officials from some of those districts said they think the federal government will turn off the water.

“Certainly every indication we are hearing is that their policy will be that federal water supplies cannot be used to grow marijuana,” claimed Brian Werner at Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District, which is in charge of about a third of the water for northeastern Colorado.

Amendment No. 2, the medical marijuana question on Florida’s ballot for the November general election, is supported by more than 80 percent of Sunshine State residents, according to the latest polls. But a new group, the Vote No On 2 campaign, has launched a website and video denouncing the amendment as legalizing weed for “money for dope dealers.”

The organization claims that the amendment would allow unrestricted sale and use of cannabis by anyone, even minors, in a virtually unregulated setting like that in California, reports William March at The Tampa Tribune.

The group’s web video uses scenes from the Venice Beach boardwalk, where marijuana dispensaries and storefront doctors allow people to get authorized and buy medical marijuana within minutes.

But backers of Amendment 2 deny these claims, saying the amendment is designed to allow only legitimate medical use under rules set up by the Florida Health Department and Legislature.

A strong majority of Vermonters support making marijuana legal for adults, taxing it, and regulating it similarly to alcohol, according to a Castleton Polling Institute survey released on Wednesday.

Such a change in state law would be supported by 57 percent of respondents. Only 34 percent said they are opposed.

“People are fed up with marijuana prohibition,” said Matt Simon, New England political director for the Marijuana Policy Project. “Marijuana is an objectively less harmful substance than alcohol, and this poll shows most Vermonters want it to be treated that way.”

The Vermont Legislature in April approved a bill that includes an amendment initiating a study to evaluate the potential impact of making marijuana legal for adults and regulating it similarly to alcohol. Gov. Shumlin is expected to sign it into law.

An injured auto mechanic who uses medical marijuana to treat pain can have his former employer and the company’s insurance provider reimburse him for the cannabis, a New Mexico appeals court ruled on May 19.

The New Mexico Court of Appeals voted unanimously to uphold a previous workers compensation court decision, also in favor Gregory Vialpando, the 55-year-old former mechanic, who suffered a lower back injury back in 2000, reports Joseph J. Kolb at Reuters.

The Santa Fe man’s former employer, Ben’s Automotive Services, and its insurance provider, Redwood Fire & Casualty, had tried to get out of reimbursing the mechanic for using medicinal cannabis as a pain treatment, pointing to marijuana’s illegal status under federal law.

New Mexico is the first state he’s aware of where a workers compensation board has approved insurance reimbursement for medical marijuana, according to Albuquerque attorney Peter White, who represents Vialpando.

Activist Alan Gordon has demanded “immediate amnesty” for people who grow cannabis for gravely ill patients in Bermuda, saying that patients can’t afford to wait.

“There is only one way to allow the immediate medical cannabis called for by the CRC Report,” said Gordon. The activist said he spoke on behalf of an unofficial collective of nearly two dozen Bermuda growers, reports Bernews.

“We need to just do it instead of just shuffling paperwork,” Gordon said. “Eighty small medical grade cannabis trees are available to start, and over 50 medical cannabis strains are currently on the island.”

Gordon said he has a “stack of cancer and MS patients’ letters discussing a life-or-death need for medical cannabis in some cases, or in other cases discussing ailments so debilitating that many readers would be moved to tears.”

Toke Signals Must Read of the Week

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie — who has his eyes on the White House — has made it abundantly clear that he opposes marijuana legalization in the Garden State. Speaking at a carefully screened townhall of mostly older residents, the blustery bombast of bridges had these words to say regarding marijuana:

“I am not going to turn our state into a place where people fly into to get high,” said Christie. “And if people want legalized marijuana in the state, elect a new governor.” (CBS)

As of now, people fly into New Jersey to get high off of industrial fumes and Snookie’s hairspray. Given all the millions in pot revenue raked in by Colorado, it’s odd that Christie would so deeply oppose it.

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